The Environmental Studies Certificate curriculum outlines all of the course requirements and options of the program. Not all of the environmental studies (Envir St) courses that are listed in the Timetable or in the course catalogs count toward the Undergraduate Certificate. However, the courses listed in the Certificate curriculum's course list do count and may be applied toward a Certificate regardless of when they are taken, as long as they are completed before graduation.
The Environmental Studies Certificate Program requires students to complete at least 26 credits from the Certificate's course list. (Many, if not all, of the credits applied to the Environmental Studies Certificate also may be counted toward a student's major and/or degree. Students should follow their school or college policies and requirements as they elect courses in the certificate program.)
Field Course: At least one course completed for the certificate must include field exercises. Those courses that count as field courses are marked with an asterisk (*) in the course list.
Methods/Tools/Techniques Course: It is strongly recommended that all students take at least one methods/tools/techniques course appropriate to their major discipline and interest area within environmental studies. Courses fitting this description can vary widely but examples might include statistics, survey research, literary/historical analysis, or geographic information systems. Students are encouraged to consult their major advisors or one of the certificate faculty advisors in identifying methods/tools/techniques courses that best apply to their individual plans of study.
Grade Requirements: The Environmental Studies Certificate Program has two grade requirements
Double Counting: Courses that are listed under more than one category in the Certificate curriculum may be used to satisfy only one of those certificate categories. For example, if students select Envir St/Soil Sci 575 as their integrative course, this course cannot be used to also satisfy their Certificate's natural science breadth requirement. Double counting of credits with a student's major and/or degree requirements, however, is completely acceptable.
Pass/Fail Courses: No more than two courses completed successfully on a pass/fail or credit/no credit basis may be counted toward the certificate requirements, and these two courses are allowed only within the certificate's breadth ares (i.e. natural sciences, social studies, humanities). All other courses must be taken for letter grades.
Course Substitutions: In most cases, substitutions will be considered in the breadth categories only. Requests should be made before a course has been taken; after-the-fact substitution requests normally will not be considered except for transfer course work completed before a student attended UW-Madison. If additional transfer course work or study abroad course work is planned, it should be submitted for review in advance. See the Study Abroad section for further details. All substitutions should be requested by submitting a course substitution form. Although the Certificate Program recognizes the value of pre-college Advanced Placement (AP) courses, these courses may not be used to fulfill the requirements of the Certificate, either as courses or as substitutions for courses.
Course Pre-Registration: Because our environmental studies courses are designed for all university students - both Certificate and non-Certificate students - we hesitate to restrict access to any course. In general this means that if you are interested in taking an environmental studies course, it is important to register as soon as possible each semester. To ensure that all Certificate students have an opportunity to complete the Certificate curriculum, enrollment priority is given to graduating Certificate seniors for some of the integrative courses in the Certificate curriculum. The Certificate Seminar, in particular, is very popular so students interested in this course must pre-register early, before web-enrollment begins. Each semester, the new pre-registration forms will be available on the Forms webpage about a month before enrollment begins. Information about this will also be sent out by email. Anyone interested in one of these limited-enrollment courses must submit a pre-registration form. These forms will be reviewed as they are received. Graduating Certificate seniors will be given first priority. If extra space remains, other students will be admitted.
DARS Reports: As you advance through the course work for the undergraduate certificate, it is important to check your progress against the university's record to make sure that you are on track. The best way to do this is by requesting a DARS report each semester, particularly after web-enrollment. This can be done simply by accessing My-UW on any computer terminal that is connected to the Internet. Once you are enrolled in the Environmental Studies Certificate program you may request a DARS report specifically for this certificate. If you do this through My-UW, your Certificate DARS report will be sent to you by email. To make sure you are meeting all requirements, request separate DARS reports for both your major and your Certificate program. Please check DARS reports very carefully. If anything does not match your own records or expectations, contact your major advisor or the Certificate Program as soon as possible.
What To Do If You Cannot Finish the Program: If you find that it is not possible to complete your Environmental Studies Certificate at the same time as your degree, there are two options: either (1) request permission to continue the Environmental Studies curriculum as a Special Student; or (2) withdraw from the Certificate program. If you pursue the first option, you will need to contact our Academic Programs Office to seek approval. If you select the second option, submit the withdrawal form included on the Forms webpage.
Advising: As a Certificate student, you may need some additional assistance in planning your academic schedule and balancing the requirements of each program, so please take advantage of advising opportunities across campus. It will be particularly important to check on your major and college requirements as well as your certificate requirements because there are important differences. For example, the breadth requirements of the College of Letters and Science are similar but not identical to the breadth requirements of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program. Pass/Fail options may also be different. So please check periodically with all of your program advisors, including those for your certificate, major, and school or college.
We hope that you will find in this program the diversity, challenge, and excitement that we have tried to build into it. Please let us know if you have any questions. Best wishes for your studies!